5 burning questions to emerge from new UFC-ESPN deal

5 burning questions to emerge from new UFC-ESPN deal

In a perfect world, the announcement of a new media rights deal would answer questions rather than generate them. But Tuesday’s news that the UFC had reached a deal with ESPN for an “immersive, multi-year media rights agreement” had the opposite effect, leaving us with plenty of unknowns about the shifting broadcast landscape for the UFC in the years to come.

Here’s a look at some immediate pressing questions.

1. What’s to become of UFC Fight Pass?

According to a joint press release, $4.99 per month gets you access to ESPN+, which comes with 15 live UFC events, plus “non-exclusive access to UFC’s full archive of programming,” including old fights, pre- and post-fight shows, plus Dana White’s Contender Series and assorted other ancillary content.

In other words, as far as fight fans are concerned it’s basically Fight Pass, but with the price chopped in half.

So why would anyone keep subscribing to Fight Pass? That’s the question I’d be wondering if I were Invicta FC or Glory Kickboxing or Cage Warriors or the Eddie Bravo Invitational, all of which currently stream events on Fight Pass.

Are they coming to ESPN+ too? Because if not, being on Fight Pass doesn’t seem like such a good deal anymore, since how many fans can be realistically expected to keep paying for it now that all the good stuff is going elsewhere at half the price?